Acute vs Chronic Disease
Cancer, Drugs and Television:
How modern medicine has failed the chronic patient
Modern conventional medicine is full of wonders and remarkable
things. Animals and people are brought back to life after
suffering severe accidents and emergencies. We transplant
organs, fix bones, and replace faulty joints. But we do not
seem to make much progress with long term illnesses and degenerative
diseases. In cancer, statistically we are winning the battle;
but patients who are declared cancer-free die due to
seemingly unrelated illnesses.
Modern conventional medicine developed around the treatment
of infectious diseases, which were the plight of previous generations.
The discovery of germs and antibiotics made it possible to
save lives otherwise lost to infections. Advances in anatomy,
antisepsis and anesthetics, together with antibiotics, made
surgical procedures safe. Vaccines succeeded in preventing
and in some cases eradicating crippling infectious diseases.
A common feature in the successes of conventional medicine
is acute disease. Acute diseases appear with great intensity
of signs and symptoms, and rapidly result in either recovery or death.
Conventional medicine (human and veterinary) is structured,
philosophically and physically to treat acute diseases. The
obsession of modern industrial society with visual stimuli
further feeds the acute model in modern medicine. Emergency
medicine and surgery are the most highly regarded disciplines
in medicine. These disciplines offer glamour and high visual
impact, and provide quasi-miraculous
results giving rapid and radical relief, that look good on TV and can be resolved within
the short term of a television program.
However, as societies become wealthier and technologically developed,
chronic diseases such as cancer, degenerative and others become more
prevalent. Yet a medical system geared to treat acute
disease does what it knows best: it treats any disease as an
acute disease, where the event must unfold within a short lapse
of time. The disease is seen as an invasion (as with infections) and
treated with a strong drug to kill the invader; surgical removal
of the diseased part is the preferred option. Even something as
simple as the clinician's appointment structure is geared
toward acute disease: the problem or list of problems
must be addressed, diagnosed, and a treatment formulated, preferably
within a 15 minute consultation.
Medical interventions rely on the healing response of the
organism. When there is an injury, the body mounts a healing
response. Medical intervention is crucial to remove the perpetuating
cause (e.g. an invading organism), or to surgically repair
a damaged tissue. The nature of chronic disease is that, although
it may have originated in an external cause, the perpetuation
of the disease is the result of a disturbance of the whole
organism, which cannot regenerate. Medical intervention based
on the acute model simply provides temporary relief and does
little to improve the underlying weakness of the organism.
Some conventional treatments suppress acute symptoms of the
disease, actually worsening the chronic disease.
Therefore, the treatment of chronic disease requires an approach
aimed not only at removing the external perpetuating factors
but at repairing and stimulating the regenerative mechanisms.
This involves taking a holistic approach to the patient where
habits, diet and environment need to be considered. Homeopathic
treatment is particularly effective in chronic disease because
it is directly aimed at reactivating inactive genes and enzymes,
hence directly stimulating regeneration systems. Occasionally,
standard or alternative drugs are required to control opportunistic
infections or rapidly eliminate suffering-causing signs.
Regardless
of the type of drugs used, in the treatment of chronic disease
it is essential that the clinician follows the patient regularly
and identifies the subtle changes at the mental, general or
particular levels, which give clues to the progress of the patient.
The Laws of Cure from homeopathic theory offer a framework
to assess progress, regardless of the type of drug or treatment
used. In addition the concept of organic balance, used in Traditional
Chinese Medicine and Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine,
provides an objective and concise framework to manage chronic
disease in such way that a breakdown is detected before it
results in an acute episode.
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